Harwich: New Stena boss appointed

A major ferry business which operates out of Essex has appointed a new boss.

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Carl-Johan Hagman, who currently has responsibility for all shipping operations in the Stena Group, has been appointed as the new chief executive of the company.

Gunnar Blomdahl, who took over as Stena Line’s CEO in 2003, will continue in other roles within the company. Under his tenure as CEO, Stena Line, which runs ferry operations at Harwich, has developed into one of the world’s largest ferry companies and has seen its most profitable years. The company has invested around £1.1bn in new tonnage and geographic expansion, eg through the acquisition of Scandline’s five Baltic routes a few months ago.

“I have been the chief executive officer for 10 years and it is time for a new CEO to take over and continue the development of Stena Line,” Mr Blomdahl said.

“I will now continue in the Stena Sphere, including positions on the boards of the Ballingslöv Group, Stena Recycling and Stena Technoworld.”

Stena AB’s chief executive officer, Dan Sten Olsson, said: “I am very pleased with Stena Line’s development under Gunnar’s leadership and over the past year, the company improved its result by £27.5m. Apart from this, Gunnar has led the work with continuous improvements, development and expansion in an extraordinary way and he leaves Stena Line in a very good condition.”

Carl-Johan Hagman, 46, will take over as CEO with effect from January 1. Since autumn 2011, he has been responsible for the Stena Group’s shipping operations, which include Stena Line, and will continue to fulfil this role.

Mr Hagman said: “Stena Line is one of the linchpins in Stena AB. The company’s strategy remains in place and our continuous efforts to offer comfortable, cost-effective and environmentally efficient ferry transport, to both private travellers and industry, will continue. I would like to congratulate Gunnar on successfully leading the company through a sometimes volatile period and thank him for handing over a very well managed company.”

As a consequence of this change, Mr Hagman will step down as chairman for Stena Line and Dan Sten Olsson, the son of the firm’s founder, will once again take on this role.

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